An Unexpected Passenger
by The Right Frame of Reference
Summary: In a bout of lucid thought, Satella makes some changes to the system of the Return by Death, permanently changing the course of Subaru's future. With these changes in place, Subaru discovers a new power and solves the problem of loneliness, but at what cost? What will happen to him when he inadvertently takes an unexpected passenger with him to a respawn? SuRem. Rated M rightfully.
1. Prologue

**I do not own Re:Zero. All content hereafter is based on the intellectual property of Tappei Nagatsuki or his associates involved in the production of Re:Zero. This story remains on the site and can be removed at their behest respectfully. This work respects their intellectual property and claims the right of parody, alteration, or recreation of an intellectual property without monetary intent for fair use reasons.**

**This story takes place in an alternate universe where minute differences will make huge impacts. If you notice a discrepancy between this story's details and the original source material, it is most likely deliberate.**

* * *

The Witch of Envy sat in her shrine by the Great Waterfall.

Satella sat there, too.

The Witch of Envy looked upon the realm of her power, the domain of which extended over the target of her affections, one Natsuki Subaru.

Satella looked upon him as well.

The young man had made a habit of dying several times to get through a single situation, something which was an unending source of deranged affection for the Witch of Envy, but of worried angst for Satella. They had gifted him the power of Return by Death, each for their own reasons, but with the same result. Satella wished for her love to end the Witch of Envy's bipolar control over her power, and the Witch wished to keep her "love" alive for long enough to free her from her captivity. Still, both had agreed that the power was useful to him, and so they set upon him the world-shattering capability to respawn shortly after dying. It had been useful, of course, but something was still missing from Satella's point of view, a viewpoint that the Witch did not share; Subaru had no way to correct an error made prior to a Return by Death.

This was an oversight which Satella noticed and which the Witch ignored as soon as Subaru's first return became reality. Still, the powers of the cultists and the witches were mystical, and would be difficult to overcome even as powerful as Satella was, especially with the Witch battling her for control of her mind. Still, she felt the need to try, and try she did. With all of her willpower, she focused her power on the being of her deepest affections, and she pored over him. The Witch, she felt, watched her closely.

When she attempted to make her change, the Witch pounced.

It was an exhausting war, the conflict between the two personalities; it was almost too much for Satella to complete her changes, but she held to the very last minute, knowing exactly what would happen if she were to let up any earlier than the completion of her intent. The Witch inside of her felt her control over the bond between the two of them lessen ever so slightly, as Satella took more control over their connection with Subaru.

She could not do much, but she could make life, death, and rebirth pass more easily for him until the time came.

And at least he would no longer be alone.

Fully spent and unable to wrestle with the Witch inside any longer, Satella fell. She sat there, resting.

The Witch sat there, too.

* * *

"I cannot understand if you do not tell me!" Emilia practically shouted at Subaru, who sat in bed, clutching his head as the stress of his current situation plagued his mind. He had failed in his duel versus one of the knights of Lugnica, that arrogant prick, and as a result he had humiliated himself and Emilia, proclaiming himself a knight and insulting the entire nobility of the kingdom. It had been for Emilia's honor, of course, but hardly anyone could see it from his perspective, and now he wanted nothing but to tell her everything he had gone through, but he could still feel the Witch's influence inside of himself, and so he felt his next action would be an incredibly stupid one to take, but he took it anyway. That was just who he was.

"I can rewind time by dying! Urk!" Subaru flinched as he shouted, expecting to feel an intense pain in his chest halfway through his sentence, and tensing up further when he finally got through the entire thing, fully thinking that he was about to die- for good this time. Instead, he clutched at his head in the same position as before, staring down at his chest in surprise as a pervasive silence filled the room. Glancing up from his bed, Subaru saw that the entire room had frozen. Emilia's face was one of disbelieving shock, but she appeared not to be moving. The door was stuck in an open position, with a familiar bowl of blue hair and a dainty hand just barely visible peaking through the crack in the doorway. The owner, Rem, had one foot inside the door and her mouth open as if she were about to speak.

Slowly, gingerly, and deliberately, Subaru stood up from the bed, trying not to move quickly enough to upset the soreness that still remained from his healing, although he was surprised when he stood up to find that his pain was completely gone in this trance-like state of the world. He stretched and let the stress of the day roll off of his shoulders, cracking his fingers and then putting his hand up to his chin in thought.

"So before, if I mentioned my Return by Death to anyone, the Witch would clamp on my chest and threaten to steal... err... my soul? But now if I do it, this happens," Subaru wondered aloud, stepping around the bed and waving his hand in front of Emilia's face with a stern expression of focus.

"Emilia-tan, are you there? Hello?" he experimentally asked, and then when she did nothing that showed that she could move, he turned towards Rem, approaching her with the same caution, waving his hand in front of her face as well, "Rem-rin? Are you in there somewhere? Rem?"

As with Emilia, Rem was completely still and seemingly lifeless, like a statue. He looked closely and saw that her chest appeared not to be thumping. Then, he raised the back of his hand up to her nose and felt that she was not breathing. For a moment, panic set in and a thousand terrible scenarios passed through his mind about having killed Rem and Emilia, before his logic finally returned and he took a deep breath.

"Either time has completely stopped inside the room, or Rem-rin and Emilia-tan have entered some form of statuesque trance. One means that the Witch's influence has changed, but the other could mean that I've walked them into a trap. Think, Subaru! What would Beatrice say about this?" he scolded himself, pacing in front of Rem with his hand still on his chin.

"Got it! 'Experimenting with the magic involved should be performed carefully. If an object still moves after you let go of it then they are in stasis, I suppose.' Thanks, Beatrice! I'm glad I always come to you with my problems! Now, let's see..." Subaru spoke to himself. He retrieved a flower from a vase on a table across the room, and then he raised it above his head as high as he could reach, immediately letting go and watching as the flower stopped in mid air where he left it. Excitedly, he ruled out the possibility of Emilia or Rem being placed under stasis individually and approached Rem again, deciding that should anything go wrong, she would be the most understanding as Emilia was not in a good mood as of late.

He took a deep breath, then slowly reached his hand out towards the daintier maid's hand on the door. His fingers shook lightly as the weakness he retained from the healing still remained, despite the absence of the pain. As gently as he could manage, he extended his pointer finger and took one step towards the blue-haired Oni, watching with curiosity and no small amount of stress as his finger made contact with her smaller one. Suddenly, a bright flash of light shook his vision and he wiped his eyes with his other hand, regaining his sight a few moments later only to look up and find himself standing in an extremely empty landscape of nothing but Witch-black magic, all devoid of life or sound except for...

Rem, she was standing in front of him in an anatomy pose, eyes closed and... very much naked. He looked down at himself and turned immediately several shades of red as he noticed he was wearing nothing as well. Still, she appeared unconscious or at least sleeping, so Subaru regained his bearings and took a few steps around her, looking for anything that could be causing her unconsciousness. When he reached her front once more, he stopped himself from looking down at her long enough to see the outline of where her horn appeared during her rampage. He lightly swept aside her hair and saw that the center of her horn glowed lightly, just enough to be visible but dim enough to be hidden by her hair. He reached forward, and he touched that light curiously.

Her eyes shot open, and he jumped backwards with an audible shout of fright. From her horn, a white light pulsed down her body, and suddenly he found himself blinded once more. Covering his eyes with the crook of his elbow to block the bright light, he heard what he could only describe as something "clicking into place," and then he peaked under his elbow at just the right time to witness Rem's light fade. She was wearing her maid uniform once more, and though he had never noticed it, he looked at his arm and saw that he was wearing his old jacket.

The blackness around them faded away, and Subaru felt something hefty in his left hand. He looked at the confused face of the now awakening Rem, and then he glanced down at his hand, where he saw something that made his eyes widen.

He was carrying a bag of groceries. Inside was a packet clearly labeled in Japanese.

The street of the merchant district was bustling with activity, all except for two time travelers.


	2. Chapter I: Of Muggers and Smugglers

**Chapter I: Of Muggers and Smugglers**

* * *

Subaru raised the bag of groceries to his eyes and looked at it for a moment, then lowered it back down to his side and looked at Rem. The tiny maid had both of her hands together in front of her as she looked around the city square with an open mouth and fervent, yet confused eyes. He knew she recognized where they were, but she was most likely trying to work out how they had gotten there. They had been inside the palace, after all, and now they were suddenly in the Royal Capital of Lugnica with the only signifying change in scenery being a jarring entrance into a shadow world filled with the Witch's scent. At that thought, Rem's eyes snapped onto him, but when she found him looking back at her, her gaze softened.

"S... Subaru-kun?" she questioned, taking a step toward him and watching how he reacted. When he did not look surprised at the situation they were in, it almost made her falter, but instead she pressed on until she was standing right in front of him. When she was looking right up at him from just inside his personal space, she continued, "How did we get to the capital, Subaru-kun? We need to return to the palace. Emilia-sama will be worried about Subaru-kun."

"Well, see, the thing is, Rem-rin, well, kind of..." Subaru sputtered, scratching the back of his neck and looking everywhere but at the blue-haired girl in front of him. When he realized what he was doing, he took in a deep breath and stared at the fountain beside them, deciding to get it all out at once, "This is not the first time this has happened to me, Rem-rin. I've been going through the same thing we just experienced for what feels like months."

"What? What has Subaru-kun gone through so much? He is not making any sense," Rem replied in a small panic; Subaru was not acting like himself. In response, he put his hands on her shoulders and leaned in. She blushed and glanced at his lips as his face got closer, but caught the hint and leaned in to hear him speak quietly when it became apparent that he was not attempting to kiss her.

"I call it the Return by Death," Subaru whispered, "and it is what happens when I die. This is the fountain in Lugnica Capital about a day before I met you. For a week of my time, every time I died, I would... err... restart here. That is, until I arrived at Roswaal Mansion with two cute maid girls hugging in front of me. Then I restarted there."

Momentarily, Rem's eyes widened as she made several connections in her head between Subaru and his actions at Roswaal Mansion. So many hints he had given them all that were brushed away as eccentricities or oddities, so many obvious weird happenings that made no sense at the time but were swept away by the personality that was "Subaru" all made sense at that moment, and the last piece of the puzzle of Natsuki Subaru fit firmly into place. Still, it tugged at her heart in two conflicting ways, and the first thing that she thought of was unfortunately what came out first.

"So... Subaru has died so many times... He has met Rem so many times... Befriended her so many times... Was it all planned? Did Subaru... Has Subaru's relationship with Rem been a lie? His relationship with Emilia-sama? His relationship with Roswaal-sama and Beatrice-sama? Is Subaru really-" she attempted to finish with tears in her eyes but was cut off by the firm hug that Subaru attacked her with as her mind ran wild. As calm as she usually was, when it came to Subaru or Ram, Rem could hardly contain herself. It was nearly as touching to him as her hunting of the pack of dark creatures for him.

"No! Rem-rin, you should think less! Well, that is, you shouldn't overthink my returns so much! This is the first time that anyone has ever come back with me before, and I don't know what happened, but everything I have ever done in my returns has been in an honest attempt to help you and the others at the mansion. I've even... I've even died to make some of you come back. Don't ever question our friendship, Rem-rin, because I promise you, and I am a man of his word, that everything is real!"

His whispered speech had the desired effect on Rem, who calmed down and by the end was smiling into his chest. Their physical contact in the past had been rare and brief, but they had hugged once or twice before, and of the family at the mansion, Rem felt she could rely on Subaru and Ram the most in any situation. The amount of convincing that she had needed that Subaru was who he said he was was minute. Her brain re-rationalized itself, and she looked up at him again.

"But then, Subaru-kun must have died hundreds of times, mustn't he have? Rem can't imagine how hard that must have been for him..." she was cut off again by the tightening of his arms around her once again.

"Don't worry about it. I've gotten used to it, honest!" he exclaimed. When it was clear that this was causing Rem the opposite reaction to one that he was intending (as her eyes widened again), he quickly added on, "At first it stressed me out, dying so many times and remembering it all, but now I know that each life that goes away isn't really real anymore, and I've gotten over it. I've... embraced it. Just like I've embraced the Roswaal family! It's a part of me now."

He separated from her once it was clear that she was back to herself, and he took a look around again.

"Come on, let me show you what I did the last time I was back here, the time that I got past this part of my life. It should be easier with two of us."

He grabbed her hand and led her towards the alleyway where the muggers resided. It was a few moments of walking before they were there, but he was relieved when they arrived and saw that the muggers were back where they had been in the previous timeline. He hadn't missed them as he at first thought. A quick call for help led to Reinhard chasing away the criminals and asking him a favor once more. Once Reinhard disappeared, Subaru quickly led Rem through the slums and towards Felt's house, where he allowed himself to get caught looking into her belongings again, convinced her that he was a customer, and followed her to the smuggler's den. It was a textbook repeat of his last return in the capital, except Rem watched furtively and picked every detail through with her eyes as she watched Subaru's surprisingly outstanding memory lead them through their new world.

Subaru repeated to the word (as closely as he could) the appraisal of his phone, the argument with Felt, and his surprise at seeing Emilia reveal herself in the doorway. The first hurdle, the one that he had expected but had not planned for, was Emilia's recognition of Rem, and her presence in the smuggling den rather than at the mansion.

"Rem? What are you doing here? And who is this man with you?" a confused sounding Emilia questioned of Rem, who looked at Subaru for help but found him wanting. Thinking quickly, having been the mastermind behind Subaru's escape to the palace earlier, she devised a quick excuse.

"Emilia-sama," she bowed, "Roswaal-sama left Ram-oniichan and Rem with standing orders to maintain the condition of the mansion. Rem noticed that the kitchen was missing a few ingredients that could only be found in the city and left as quickly as she could. When she saw Emilia-sama in a troublesome part of the city, she followed Emilia-sama to keep her safe. Rem arrived before Emilia-sama to ensure her safety. This is Subaru-ku... Subaru-san. He... helped me find ingredients and had business here," she finished awkwardly, hoping that it would hold up to Emilia's guaranteed scrutiny. Fortunately, Emilia was too focused on the crest to pay much mind to shoddy excuses and nodded swiftly before going back to arguing with Felt.

Subaru lightly tapped Rem's elbow and gestured with his eyes towards the place where Elsa would soon pounce, and he saw Rem's eyes narrow and an almost imperceptible nod bob her hair before she pretended to watch Emilia, all of her senses except sight directed at the spot Subaru had indicated.

Subaru looked her over to make sure she had gotten the message, turned towards Emilia and Felt, and started to broker a deal between them like he had last time. A glint of pale skin in the darkness where he had gestured to Rem caught his eye and he internally grinned. It felt quaint to know his opponent's moves before they were made again, finally. As soon as the dark lady made a twitch, he pounced.

"Puck! Guard her!"


End file.
